1. Field of Invention
The field of the currently claimed embodiments of this invention relates to robotic systems, and more particularly to combined teleoperative-cooperative controllable robotic systems.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Robotic microsurgery has great potential to address common problems encountered in many micromanipulation tasks including hand tremor, poor tool manipulation resolution, and accessibility. Robotic manipulators can provide the needed stability and precision, especially in a task like vitreoretinal eye surgery. Although there are numerous robotic eye surgery concepts, we employ two types of different robotic paradigms to address these problems.
One type is the cooperative control robot, such as the EyeRobot2 (ER2), where the surgeon and robot share the control of the surgical instrument. In this type, the robot holds the surgical tool. The surgeon holds the surgical tool or a handle or sensing device that moves with the robot's tool holder. The robot control system senses forces exerted by the surgeon on the tool or handle and moves the robot in accordance with the sensed forces. In other embodiments, the system may sense handle displacements and move in response to those. The main advantages are that the operator interaction with the surgical instruments is familiar and direct but much steadier than freehand operation and that the surgeon can remove the tool from the eye at any moment, without delay. This is very important in cases where the patient is locally anaesthetized and awake, and can move unexpectedly.
Another type is a teleoperation system where the surgeon controls the robotic manipulator from a remote master console. The best known example of a teleoperation system is the da Vinci Surgical System® (Intuitive Surgical, Inc.), a commercially available and clinically approved telerobotic system for Minimally Invasive Surgical procedures (MIS). This system has similar advantages of minimizing hand tremor, but can provide an even finer degree of tool control by employing a motion scaling scheme. There are a few disadvantages to teleoperation, including difficulty in performing safe gross motion inside and outside of the eye due to lack of visualization, significant reliance on correct definition of the location of the remote-center-of-motion mechanism that prevents excessive motion of the eye by constraining tool motion to intersect the sclerotomy incision location, and the increased slave design complexity to comply with stringent safety requirements. Therefore, there remains a need for improved robotic systems.